Dear friends!Sorry for being absent for a while. Our deadline finish was very intense, and instead of some days off, the project’s final account was awaiting us.

By now, we are working on the websites and the festival applications. Some of the latter have already been sent. We will keep you posted. Please keep your fingers crossed for us!

The supporters of our crowd-funding campaign are certainly interested when they will receive their perks. Sorry for the delay, most of the materials are available now. Only the DVD special edition will take some more time. We will begin the shipping in the next four weeks. If you have any questions, just contact us.

In only four weeks 111 supporters (86 via Indiegogo
and 25 via bank transfer) from 10 countries helped our project to
cross the finishing line. Thank you very much for your support!

Even
if we reached "only" 78 % of the targeted amount ($ 4,300
plus € 2,170 via bank transfer), we will accomplish our goal
adequately by advancing the deficit. Fortunately, we are still
receiving smaller donations.

You can still contribute by PayPal or bank
transfer (see here). Of course, you will receive a perk
as in the crowdfunding campaign.

So please continue to
spread the word and watch out for announcements of local premieres
and screenings.

Another important note to supporters who left
no address: Please email it to us so that we can send you your
personal perk: lizaruft.film(at)gmail.com

January 27th 2015 - 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

On this day 70 years ago the Red Army liberated the concentration and extermination camps Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

She herself lost over 50 relatives in the Holocaust.

On this occasion Fania Brantsovskaya will talk to young Germans in Wuppertal, Germany today. The Sovjet troops coordinated their offensives with partisans in the occupied territories. In 1944 Fanias unit participated in the liberation of Vilnius and aided the Sovjet troops in forcing the German troops into retreat.

we are close to finishing the movie. The last three years we spent recording exciting and interesting film material, so now we lack some of the financial means needed to complete the post-production and give this film the finish, Fania and her story deserve.

What is it we still need to do?

finish cutting

color grade

sound design

sound mix

create DVDs and BluRays

distribute to festivals worldwide

As announced we are therefore launching a crowdfunding campaign! Please take the minute to visit our campaign site ( www.indiegogo.com/projects/liza-ruft-the-movie ) and help us in whichever way you can! That sure may be a donation, but we are also very happy, if you take the second to share the site with your friends or let someone know about it, who you think might be interested. We also offer some nice services for anybody who helps us with this last financing.

For the donations we already received we will return your favor as described in the crowdfunding campaign.

We hope that we will overcome this last hurlde with your help and will be able to present the finished movie soon!

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Vilna / Vilnius. Between July 5 and 13, 1944, the Red army took the city with support of Soviet partisans and the Polish Armia Krajowa.

On July 8, Fania Brancovskaya and her unit marched into the city. She recalls the return to her hometown with mixed feelings. Her joy at the end of German occupation was overshadowed by feelings of solitude. Of 70 000 Vilna Jews only a few hundred had remained. They had escaped execution in the last days of occupation or had survived in hiding. In the sequence above, Fania recalls her feeling of forlornness. The sight of elderly Jews was so rare that she hugged each and everyone she met. Please activate the closed captions (CC).

Allow us to use the occasion for a remark on our own behalf: Our film project has entered the final period of post-production which will finish on February 28, 2015.

A number of foundations and individual donors covered the film's production. The Claims Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany is funding its post-production on a pro rata basis. We are incredibly grateful for this support, however, we still need to raise 5, 000 € to cover all costs. That is why we will soon initiate a crowdfunding campaign to close this gap. Please watch out for further announcements.

After documenting her public lecture ​​on Sunday, we yesterday met with Rachel Kostanian, the long-time head of the Holocaust Museum in Vilnius, to continue the interview which we had to abort due to technical problems in September 2013.The focus of our coversation was on Holocaust remembrance in Lithuania since 1944, of which Rachel, who was involved in the establishment of the “Green House”, is, of course, an outspoken expert. Particularly impressive was her description of the awakening of the Jewish community and the revitalization of the Lithuanian-Jewish symbiosis in the perestroika years - and her disappointment that soon after independence, anti-Semitic tones started to threaten these achievements. She expressed great concern regarding the Ukraine crisis, which has fueled the nationalist and anti-Russian tendencies in Lithuania - as it became obvious in the recent presidential elections.

Today and tomorrow, we celebrate the victory of the anti-Hitler coalition over
Nazi Germany and its allies and the liberation of Europe from German fascism.

With effect from May 8, 1945 at 23:01 CET, the supreme commanders of the German
Wehrmacht signed the unconditional surrender in Berlin-Karlshorst. With regard
to Moscow time, “Victory Day” is subsequently being celebrated there on May 9. These day are not only an occasion to pay tribute to the members of
the forces of the anti-Hitler coalition, but to honor the contribution of partisans
and resistance fighters throughout Europe.

We have just spoken with Fania and thanked her in place of the more than one
million anti-Nazi guerillas. She had just returned from a tour to Ponar and a
memorial service with students at the Jewish cemetery. To our delight, she was
in great spirits, good health and very energetic.

For those residing in Berlin, on Friday, May 9, there will
be a Victory day celebration with Veterans of the Red army at the Soviet
monument at Treptower Park. The event is hosted by the Berlin Union of
Persecutees of the Nazi Regime (Berliner VVN-BdA)

Last Thursday, 85-year-old honorable chairman to the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Shimon Alperovitch, passed away in Vilnius. The “Litvak” and Holocaust survivor Alperovitch, born 1928 in Vilna, worked as an attorney and served as chairperson and later as honorable chairman to the Lithuanian Jewish Community.

In September 2013, Mr. Alperovitch was so kind to invite us to interview him for our film. Though it was late evening and his small room in an old people's home made some improvisations necessary, he patiently answered all our questions. We got to know Mr. Alperovitch as a wise, optimistic and also humorous character.

Mr. Alperovitch was very supportive to Fania when she came in the crosshairs of the prosecutor's investigations against former partisans. In our interview, he found clear words condemning historical revisionism. However, he expressed cautious optimism regarding the future of Holocaust remembrance and of the Jewish community in Lithuania.

We are very proud that our film will contribute to carry on his legacy.Our hearts go out to his loved ones and to the Jewish community of Lithuania.

On
occasion of today’s "International Holocaust Remembrance Day" which
commemorates the 69th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz
death camp, we like to draw attention to an article on the rise of
"double genocide" theory in Germany politics which appeared in "Jüdische
Allgemeine" (in German).

The article states that Germany’s
new coalition government of conservatives (CDU) and social democrats
(SPD) agreed on prioritizing the reviewing and commemoration of the
injustice of the socialist German Democratic Republic. In the
coalition’s agreement, the commemoration of Nazi crimes does no longer
play a special role. While the agreement holds nothing for the survivors
of Nazi crimes of which many still have not been compensated, the rates
for victims of GDR injustice will be increased. The author sees a
political paradigm shift at work: Had the mixing of Nazi crimes and GDR
injustice been previously avoided, the equation is just around the
corner. Linguistically, the turn towards a totalitarian view of 20th
century history is clearly noticeable. Terms like "Nazi reign of terror"
and "Stalinism" or the formula of "two German dictatorships" seem more
than semantic coincidences.

As 2013 concludes, we urge you to support 'Liza ruft!' today. Please consider making a donation to help us complete the film. Foundations helped us cover our travel expenses. The Claims Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany generously funds our film's post-production on a pro rata basis. Besides, we are deeply grateful to a number of individual donors. However, we still cover most of the expenses ourselves. Unfortunately, time is crucial, and we wish Fania and her comrades to see this film soon. We shall not miss this chance.

Please support 'Liza ruft!'. We appreciate all donations! In return for your support, you will receive heartfelt thanks and a symbolic compensation.

Thanks to some committed helpers we have finished transcribing and translating all our interview material (230 hours of video footage, interviews in seven languages including rare dialects). Besides, we have tagged and sorted our audio and video material and developed major themes for the storytelling. Watch an outtake of our recent trip to Vilna on occasion of the 70th anniversary of the ghetto's liquidation on September 23, 2013. It covers Fania's first speech in this context in years. Please activate the subtitles (CC).

Our eventful trip to Lithuania has come to an end. On Wednesday morning, our last full day, we were invited to Fania's, whom we met very excited: She had just received a copy of a prisoner list from the Stutthof concentration camp memorial, which proves her little sister's Riwa arrival in 1944. It is therefore likely that Riwa died in Stutthof or on the death march after the Germans had evacuated the camp. Until then, Fania only knew that Riwa was abducted with their mother after the liquidation of the Vilna ghetto to Riga. Here she was forced to work in a weaving factory and is said to have secretly written poems.Subsequently, Fania invited us to attend to the opening of a imitated hideout from the Germans, a so-called Malina, whcih can from now on be seen in the attic of the Holocaust Museum. After lunch at Fania's we already had to say goodbye, because we had an appointment with Sara Ginaite.

Fania & Rachel Kostanian, Holocaust Museum Vilnius

Sara Ginaite, born in 1924 in Kovno (Kaunas), made her way to the Rudninkai forests in1943, where she joined the Soviet partisan movement and took part in the liberation of Vilna and Kovno. In the late 1970s she had emigrated to Canada. Ginaite was among the 11 former Jewish partisans who investigated by the Lithuanian prosecutor's office with charges of "murder" and "crimes against humanity." Sara Ginaite found clear words on the Double Genocide thesis.Afterwards we met with Rachel Kostanian, the long-time head of the Holocaust Museum, for an interview in the "green house". Unfortunately, technical problems kept us from finishing learning about her life story and her commitment to commemorate and teach the Holocaust in Lithuania. We hope that we can make good for this in the near future. The next morning we used the time until departure to film some impressions of the city.

This morning we went by car to the villages on the outskirts of the Rudninkai forest where the basis of the Fania's partisan unit was located. Unfortunately, we found the forest around being partly cleared of trees. Any information board on the memorial is still missing...

After our return to Vilnius, we paid a visit to Shimon Alperovitch (s. right), the longtime chairman of the Jewish community. He was very supportive to Fania when she came in the crosshairs of the prosecutor's investigation against the former partisans. Asked about the theory of the "double genocide", he found very clear words. However, he expressed cautious optimism regarding the future of Holocaust remembrance.

We would like to send special greetings to the former Jewish partisan, ex-boxer and university professor Noah N. Shneidman of Toronto, who turned 89 years old today. Mazel tov!

We interrupted the work on our film's post-production and went to Vilnius on occasion of the 70th anniversary of the liquidation of the Ghetto on September 23, 1943.For us, it is primarily a matter of the heart to visit Fania these days and attend to the festivities - especially, as it will be the last time that a larger group of survivors will participate. Among the highlight of this week are the IV. WORLD LITVAK CONGRESS and of course the commemoration ceremony at Ponar, which will take place tomorrow afternoon. For the first time in years, Fania will give a speech on this occasion. We expect her to do it in Yiddish, because, as she uses to say, it was the language of most of the people murdered there. We used the evening after arrival to take some pictures of the city lights. The rain did not make it easy, but offered some special impressions.We will keep you posted. We expect some moving days before we will return to Berlin on Thursday.

Today marks the 69th anniversary of the liberation of Vilna / Vilnius. Between July 5 and 13, 1944, Soviet troops took the city with the support of partisans and the Polish Armia Krajowa.

On July 8, Fania Brancovskaya and her unit returned back to her hometown. Her first impression was a pile of dead soldiers at the train station underpass whose boots had been stolen. Of once 70 000 Vilna Jews only a few hundred had remained in the city. They had belonged to the few "work Jews" who had been left alive by the Germans and escaped during the Soviet attack, or who had persevered in hiding. The sight of elderly Jews was so rare that Fania recalls how she hugged each and everyone she met.

In the sequence above, she points to her feeling of abandonment, her initial hope for the return of relatives and the importance of her comrades’ companionship.

The protagonistof ourdocumentary,FaniaBrancovskaya, turns 91 years today.Wehavejust spoken toher on the phone. To our great joy we foundher in cheerful spirits andgood health.

Wehopeto see her again this summer.Although she will be"very busy" (or "shtark farnumen" as she put it in Yiddish) - as she will be again giving classes inYiddishlanguage andliterature at the Vilnius SummerUniversity.

With a little delay, we would like to present you a powerful out-take of a recent interview with Noah N. Shneidman, of Toronto. As our budget did not allow us to conduct the interview ourselves, we were lucky to have an associated film crew doing it on our behalf. Many thanks to Carla, Amy and Gudrun.

Noah N. Shneidman has been a friend of Fania's since childhood days. Their families lived door to door and stayed close even after the Vilna Jews had been crammed into the Ghetto. Mr. Shneidman, an enthusiastic boxer since the age of 13, joined a small resistance group which was independent of the FPO and tried to fight off the Germans throughout the Ghetto's liquidation. He escaped at the last-minute and joined Soviet partisans in Narotch (Belorussia). After his return to Vilna, when Mr. Shneidman was all alone, he found warm reception from Fania and her husband Mikhail who became „like family,“ as he put it. When he learned, his sister Lucy had survived and moved to Canada, he left Soviet Lithuania in 1956 and settled in Toronto, where he became a professor for Russian literature.

In this out-take, Mr. Shneidman describes his first encounter with the brutality of the German occupiers in Taboryshky, a village near Vilnius where his uncle’s family lived. English subtitles are available directly on YouTube.